Montessori-Inspired State Box – Colorado

My activity today is an extension of the Montessori continent box. If you’d like to do a unit study of a specific state or the entire United States, a state box, basket, or tray would work well to highlight each state you study.

My Montessori-inspired state box is my activity for both Montessori Monday (Montessori Monday link-up is at the end of the post) and Booking Across the USA. I’m not a native Coloradan, but my family moved to Colorado in 1996. I’ve loved living in Colorado ever since!

Montessori-Inspired Colorado State Box

For my state box, I used a beautiful wooden Nienhuis box that I couldn’t bear to sell from my Montessori school that I owned in the 1980s. The box worked well over the years of homeschooling for hands-on materials I wanted to highlight (such as materials for my Montessori-based Lenten tray/box). I just placed the box on the shelf without the lid for special activities I wanted to focus on, such as a study of a particular state.

I always include books in any unit study. The book I’m featuring for my Colorado state box is C Is for Centennial: A Colorado Alphabet by Louise Doak Whitney (illustrated by Helle Urban). What I especially like about the book is that it can be used for any age. For preschoolers, there’s a short verse for each letter of the alphabet.

For older readers, you’ll find additional text for each letter with lots of information about Colorado. I enjoyed reading the book and learned many interesting facts. I can’t give any first-hand experience about using the book with my kids, though. It wasn’t published until a few months after my son graduated from homeschool high school!

The state box is an activity you can personalize for your unique family or classroom. My family was able to visit many states because of figure skating competitions, and I always saved souvenirs from each trip we took. Some of our Colorado souvenirs were from trips before we moved here and others from mini-vacations and field trips while we lived in Colorado.

I included Colorado postcards, brochures, maps, souvenir spoons, and Christmas ornaments. A small photo album would have been a nice addition, too.

We had a 3 -D puzzle of the United States from the 1990s that we loved. I included the Colorado state piece along with the Rocky Mountains and ski pieces that fit into the state piece. I looked online, and, unfortunately, I can’t find either the company or the puzzle map. has a nice U.S.A. map wooden puzzle, though. You could always add the state map piece from your favorite puzzle map for each state you study.

Booking Across the USA

Special thanks to Jodie from Growing Book by Book for organizing Booking Across the USA. Also, thanks to Erika from The Honey Bunch and Misty from Think, Wonder & Teach for working on creating a button. And thanks to Carolyn from Wise Owl Factory for creating the lovely table of flag links to each blogger.

Montessori Monday Link-Up

If you have some Montessori activity trays/lessons to share, please link up below. It’s fine to link up a post from your archives – and you may link up anytime during the week! Your post may be any Montessori-inspired activity or idea. It doesn’t need to be related to my Montessori Monday post.

Link up your exact post URL so that we can find your activity if we return to the linky at a later date (which I often do when I’m looking for activities for a roundup post). I publish the Montessori Monday post and linky at 6:00 a.m. EST each Monday and keep the linky open throughout the week.

Please place the Montessori Monday button (using the code from the right sidebar) in your post or put a link back to this post. Let’s use Montessori Monday to gain inspiration/ideas and to encourage each other! If you would leave an encouraging comment on the post linked up ahead of you (along with any other posts you’re drawn to), that would be awesome! Thanks for participating!

Notes:

You’ll find a Pinterest Pinning Party in our Living Montessori Now Community (featured on the welcome page). That’s for any kid-related posts whether they’re Montessori-inspired or not. Please feel free to add posts there as well! (If you join our Living Montessori Now Community, your blog feed (post excerpts) will show up on the Living Montessori Now Community Welcome Page if you add your blog link when you sign up. It’s an easy way to get extra attention for your blog posts.)

Also, if you’ve ever been linked to in one of my roundup posts, please feel free to grab the “Featured on” badge.

Have you added the Montessori Monday button or a text link? Please be sure you’ve done one or the other so that others can find the link-up, too! Thank you!

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Another interesting state ABC book sent me off to check if similar resource for Maine. Found one: Journey Around Maine from A to Z by Martha Zschock. Think we might do a month of ABC state books to explore and compare.

Hi Marnie! Thanks so much! This was a fun and easy project to do, since I just had to find my book and create a Colorado activity. It’s been great fun to see the amazing activities from around the country. My husband and I really did most of our U.S. explorations when our kids were elementary age and up. It’s so much fun to explore the USA with kids! Deb recently posted..50+ Montessori-Inspired Dr. Seuss Activities

I love this idea and it can easily be adapted to fit any state your are learning about. Thank you so much for participating in the Booking Across the USA project.Jodie recently posted..March Table Topics

How cool is the Booking Across the USA idea? I love it! Of course the Colorado girl in me is crazy over your box, too. I’m definitely going to have to track down a copy of C is for Centennial for my poor children who don’t get to see nearly enough of that beautiful state. Maybe I’ll bring one home with us from our summer visit! Melissa recently posted..Building a Community Montessori Program

Thanks, Melissa … isn’t this fun?! I’m so glad I got to be part of the Booking Across the USA project. Colorado is an awesome state, isn’t it?! I hope you all get to visit more in the future. Deb recently posted..50+ Montessori-Inspired Dr. Seuss Activities

WoW – what a comprehensive post. I am SO excited to be part of this collaboration and your showcase totally puts Colorado on my list of must-see places! (I did visit Estes Park when I was younger and have very fond memories from that family trip.)

Thanks so much, Barbara! Booking Across the USA has been an amazing collaboration, hasn’t it?! I hope you have a chance to visit Colorado soon … it is a beautiful state! Deb recently posted..50+ Montessori-Inspired Dr. Seuss Activities

Making a state box is such a wonderful idea! My kids love to explore materials that I set out in baskets or boxes, so this idea would work well for us. I appreciate that you share your expertise of Montessori with all of us so freely, thank you!Kelly at Little Wonders’ Days recently posted..Booking Across the USA, Aurora Borealis

Thanks Deb for this great post! My family is doing the same about saving souvenirs whenever we travel (mostly Daddy!) and it is the way that Pinky has been learning her geography so far with such a joyful way. She loves to explore each souvenir or book. After exploring the continents, we are getting to explore each state. Thanks for all the links!!! It will make my research much easy.Airamty recently posted..Learning the States- Montessori-Inspired

Looks like a great book! I covered Michigan for the Booking Across the USA and used a book from the same publisher … Sleeping Bear press (actually it’s a Michigan company named after the Sleeping Bear Dunes!). Love the post, Deb!

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The activities shared on this blog require adult supervision at all times. You know which activities are appropriate for your children and/or the children under your care and are responsible for those children's safety.